I am current building a Details Associates wood round house kit and have two Campbell kits sitting on the shelf so I don’t know what you are talking about [:D]
Somewhere along the line both custom layout builders and custom structure builders found a niche.
Fine Scale Model kits and others came along. I’ve never built one but I assume the complexity would be on a par with their price and not that of Plasticville kits. If you botched a Plasticville kit, or never finished it, no big deal. A FSM kit grabs the attention of most of our wallets.
40 years ago my computer time was 3 hours a week in a college Fortran class plus homework. There was no Hulu, Netflix, Facebook, or 150 channels on TV. Kids played little league in the spring. Now kids sports are practically year round.
It’s not only the hobby that has changed, life has changed. And not just our hobby. If you remember when Hot Rods were hot, you built your own. These days you just buy one for 40 or 50 grand and never get grease on your hands.
Yep, I remember. Indeed go back far enough and they even railed against … brass locomotives! and using most if not all the same arguments.
I know guys who are superb builders and detailers of rolling stock who have yet to ever build a structure of any kind. It just doesn’t interest them.
Some of these ready built structures really are really nice models (some, like most of the Mendards offerings, or the old Ertl buildings, are between pretty nice and meh. Some are just OK). Me, I wouldn’t reject the idea of a ready built just because it is a ready built.
Having just found one of my past efforts (a Cannonball Car Shops PS-1 boxcar using the old Kurtz Kraft tooling) in a box, and noting all the fine detail parts that simply fell off or went missing in the intervening years or decades, and noting areas where I was not as careful with cement as I should have been, yet clearly used too little cement on some parts, and the overall disappointing look of the thing – three cheers for the RTR Kadee boxcar. It will take a long effort with chisel blades to get that CCS boxcar to where I can re-detail it with current after market parts (and evidently nobody makes separate boxcar door guides any more?) and at the end of the day with all that work, it will never look as good as a Kadee. Oh well. Vigorously weathering can cover a multitude of sins.
When I kept track of time, I found that it took me 1 month to build 1 square foot of my layout. Scenery and structures are my thing, but that time also included time away from scenery to do wiring and build rolling stock kits, plus add Kadees to my older cars and upgrade to metal wheelsets.
I’ve spent a lot of time on my trains, but I’ve never kit-built a locomotive or hand-laid track. I’m fine with bringing it home from the LHS. To be honest, I don’t think either would look better if it were not RTR. Besides, I only have so much time, and after all these years my layout remains unfinished. I don’t have time to use craftsman kits for everything and still make much progress.
I’ve got lots of structure and plastic rolling stock kits stored away, purchased years ago. I hope that when I go to the Big Roundhouse in the Sky, someone else will finish them and enjoy them. I doubt that I’ll ever have time to build them all.
Scratch building is an Art form. I’ve known quite a few folks who amaze me building things for their layout.
I think scratch building,…anybody can do (if you meant me you’d see why). Granted most have many years if not decades under their belts. They started off like many.
If it’s not available in kit form or is something dear to the modelers heart. Scratch building is the only way.
When 3D printing started picking up. I as a scratch builder was totally against it. I felt it took away from building something with your hands. Now if some 3D printer manufacturer made a printer that used POLYSTYRENE as a filament. Yup,on board ! Would pick one up to make scratch building easier. Printing cabs (cabs & handrails are my nemesis) would be great.
I also think scratch building something as a modeler in any scale. Is a right of passage in my humble opinion.
Most people are scared to even try scratch building. It’s not hard to do and you pick up things from those who are kind enough to share insight.
So,if you’ve never scratch/bash anything. YOU ARE MISSING OUT on one of the most rewarding things in our hobby.
I’ve built some Campbell kits, but as i approach retirement, i look forward to finally having the time to scratch build structures, replacing my foam buildings.
To be honest, I had never even thought about it, but I had scratched almost everything in my subway station. I even used liquid latex to make the molds for the Hydrocal castings of the tile walls and concrete platforms. I dived right in and did it. I learned and developed techniques every step of the way, and loved every minute of it.
I’m one of those modelers as well. I also have cars & engines from many of the other companies that have produced them in the last 20 years or so. I also engines and cars that I have kitbashed. Some were done to match certain cars. Others (both cars and engines) were done to improve the running gear.
If folks nowadays want instant gratification, r-t-r is their answer. I don’t have a problem with that - have bought some myself.
However, I find there’s something even nicer about the gratification of doing it yourself, and it seems to last longer, too.
My time is just as valuable as anybody else’s, and I don’t feel that mine is being wasted. Your results may vary.
I have RTR rolling stock and locomotives. Easier for to build a train.
I have ran into problems when it comes to Conrail. Today’s freight cars has the same panels and bodies. When modeling CR I would need to cut panels off a coalporter or a gondola or it would the same as the prototype. It will be easier to get an undecorated car than using a existing car and try to match paints than gluing it back together.
I do have plastic and wood kits. It was fun for me build them. I got 2 building kits so I can kitbash into a large factory.
A few years ago I bought an HO Amtrak station so I convert the dimensions into N Scale. So I can have the modern Amtrak station for my trains. If I switch scales down the line I have the Amtrak station. It’s a 2 to 1 thing.
As I get ready for my 7th decade, I find ready to run cars, Kadee, Tanget, etc more to my liking. I want more detail on my smaller layout. Failing eyesight and arthritic fingers make assembling the dozens of Branchline, IMWX, Intermountain and Red Caboose kits I have accumulated a challenge. I’m afraid RTR models aren’t just for the young whippersnappers, but for some of us old geezers as well.
I have no issues with RTR for reasons that that several have noted. The only reason I shy away from RTR buildings is color. I got the Cornerstone Golden Valley Freight House built up and the ochre color just seemed out of place on my layout. I donated it to my club and bought the kit.
Instant gratification has very negative connotation attatched to it and is probably a bad term toward many of us who buy RTR items. The issue for many of us is not instant gratification but lack of time necessary to build a good sized fleet of freight cars and engines to operate a sizable layout.
My time is valuable too, but I have a life and a wife who doesn’t allow me much time for the hobby. Past four years I was at least able to work 4 ten hour days so I had a day all to myself to work on the layout I was building. Now I’m in a new job back to 5 days and too much on the hunny do list that I honestly don’t know how I’m going to build the next one, let alone many kits to run on it. Perhaps people who have time, or wives who tolerate them disappearing into the basement a lot more, should be more understanding of those who can’t. And especially those who have kids still in the house.
Moral of the story, our results do vary. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
There was a period of about 10-12 years when my 3 sons were growing up where I did nothing on a layout. But those were good years and I wouldn’t trade them in. The layout was still there when they were grown.
My wife took over my layout space and I couldn’t work on a layout for 9 years. That was back when I could see itty bitty parts. Do it any way you want/can.
Things change. Track is a good example. When I started in model railroading c.1971, “real” or “serious” model railroads were built with hand-laid track (wood ties and code 100 nickel-silver rail). Someone might use flex-track on some storage tracks or maybe (MAYBE) in hidden track like a long tunnel, but never on the layout per se. Flex-track was basically for kids / beginners, and was looked at as pretty much being like sectional track (like Atlas Snap-track)… which was looked at as not being much better than 3-ties per section Lionel O-27 track.
In recent years, there’s still a few hand-layers, but most “real” or “serious” modellers use flex-track on cork roadbed. People who use ‘click track’ from Kato or Bachmann are looked down on like the flex-trackers were years back. My guess would be 20-30 years from now, most layouts will use ‘click track’ and flex-track will be only held onto by a few old heads who want to do it the old (hard) way.
You could make the same point re plastic freight and passenger cars vs. plastic kits, or plastic vs. wood building kits, etc.
Jim,My Grandson cut his modeling teeth with Grandpa’s Athearn and Roundhouse now,he wants nothing to do with “fobbie models” including inheriting mine. My Brother in law as a newb went with DCC,DCC/Sound and the higher end locomotives and cars only because they looked more realistic.
IMHO the newb should go with the models that fits his billfold.
Of course a lot of modelers got champagne taste with a beer pocket book only because they are mislead by believing they can only enjoy the hobby by buying the higher end models…
People have always had other things to do besides modeling railroads. Generations past most likely had LESS time to devote to modeling, and yet they were able to creat scenery, structures, locomotives, and rolling stock from scratch or from crude kits.
I enjoy creating my layout one piece at a time, and wouldn’t consider buying pre-built structures. I can create something equal to or much better than any pre-built piece for a fraction of the cost, so I choose to build my own. Others want to be able to plop something down on their layout and that’s fine for them. They can do what they wish with their money and their railroad.
I thought realistic operations were the ultimate goal of model railroading, at least according to some prominent writers in the hobby press, and RTR gets you there quicker. So what’s the problem?
My satisfaction with the structures on my layout comes from building them myself and customizing each one to make it “mine.” I am not particularly cost-conscious.
When I thumb through my MR magazine, I might notice a nice-looking building. Then I see that it’s a built-up, and turn the page. If Menard’s would put out kits, even at the same price as their built-ups, I would be more likely to buy one. It’s the same with the Woodland Scenics built-ups. I look at the model, and think about how difficult it would be to repaint it, add an interior and light it up. Let me see what’s on the next page.
My Branchline Trains Laser Kits are among the most expensive models on my layout, certainly considering the square footage. They are truly eye-catching models and for me, worth the price.
